20 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva 1858–1928)., with Footnotes. #9

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) 

Portrait of Princess Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva, c. 1896

patroness of the arts, philanthropist and enamel artist

Oil on canvas

197 × 120 cm

Isaak Izrailevich Brodsky Flat Museum, St. Petersburg.

"On my last full-length portrait not only are there no legs, but the hand was broken, exactly the oversight. Repin twice sent me this portrait, and I had returned twice. Once he put it, but did not dare to write, it's me, and called it the catalog "Lady" - perhaps he wanted to hurt me with that, but I was thrilled. Who is this "lady" did she cause me a new drama with my husband, and the new unavoidable costs."

Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva 1858–1928), Russian Princess, a public person, artist, educator, philanthropist and collector. She was born May 20, 1858, in St. Petersburg. Maria Tenisheva is famous as the founder of the Art studio in St. Petersburg, and the Drawing School at the Museum of Russian antiquity in Smolensk, handicraft college in Bezhitsa town, as well as by artistic and industrial workshops held in her own estate Talashkino.

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (1865 – 1911)

Portrait of Mary Klavdievny Tenisheva, c. 1898

 Oil, Canvas

100 × 115 cm

Smolensk State United Historical and Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, Smolensk

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (19 January 1865 – 5 December 1911) was born into the family of famous Russian composer Alexander Serov. In 1871, his father died, and in 1872-73 Valentin and his widowed mother moved Munich, where he took lessons from the artist K. Kepping. In 1874, they moved to Paris, where Valentin regularly visited the studio of Ilya Repin, who was very fond of the little boy. In 1875, the Serovs came to live at Abramtsevo, the estate of the industrial tycoon and patron Savva Mamontov, where artists, musicians and actors were always welcome. Valentin grew up in the atmosphere of constant creativity that characterized the Mamontovs’ household. He was fortunate to receive a professional education from the earliest childhood from the some of the best Russian artists, and he soon showed himself to be a remarkably precocious draughtsman. He could catch the likeness of a model often more quickly and confidently than older artists in the spontaneous drawing competitions that were part of the daily life at Abramtsevo. 

Serov traveled a lot, participating in exhibitions in Russia and abroad. In 1897-1909, Serov taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His students noted that Serov was a superb technical master of many painting media. In 1903, he was elected member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Serov died in 1911. More

Ilya Yefimovich Repin, (1844 – 1930) 

Portrait of Mary Klavdievny Tenisheva

Oil on canvas

She was born in St. Petersburg. The girl was illegitimate, and grew up in her stepfather's wealthy house; she was quite a shy girl. His mother was cold to her, apparently binding to this child the moments of her life, which she was trying to forget.

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) see at bottom

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) 

Portrait of Princess MK Tenisheva Leon Bonnat, c. 1896

At 16-years-old Maria graduated from a private school, a young lawyer Rafail Nikolaev, proposed to her. The idea that the marriage would give her freedom, pushed her to give consent. The couple had a daughter, also named Maria, but the marriage did not work out. Soon Maria Tenisheva went to Paris to study singing at the famous Marchesi. She had a beautiful soprano. She took her daughter with her. It was tough time for Maria, as her husband refused to give her an exit permit, and her mother also stopped subsidizing her. Maria took singing lessons at famous Mathilde Marchesi, also graphics lessons. Maria decided that singing and stage performance were not for her. 

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) see at bottom

In the spring of 1885 Maria Klavdievna finally returns to Russia

After she returned to St. Petersburg, she attended Baron von Stieglitz classes. At this time Maria was studying in depth the history of art, was spending a lot of time reading books and visiting museums.

1892, Maria was married to Prince Vyacheslav Nikolayevich Tenishev

In 1892, Maria was married to Prince Vyacheslav Nikolayevich Tenishev, an outstanding Russian manufacturer. The couple settled in Khotylevo estate, situated on the banks of Desna river, where the Princess founded a one-class school.

Konstantin Korovin

Princess Maria Tenisheva

Konstantin Alekseyevich Korovin (1861 – 1939) was a leading Russian Impressionist painter. Konstantin was born in Moscow. His father, Aleksey Mikhailovich Korovin, earned a university degree and was more interested in arts and music than in the family business. In 1875 Korovin entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

In 1885 he then traveled to Paris and Spain. "Paris was a shock for me … Impressionists… in them I found everything I was scolded for back home in Moscow", he later wrote. In 1888 he traveled to Italy and Spain. He painted in the Impressionist, and later in the Art Nouveau, styles.

Korovin's subsequent works were strongly influenced by his travels to the north. Korovin painted a large number of landscapes. The paintings are built on a delicate web of shades of grey. The etude style of these works was typical for Korovin's art of the 1890s. Using material from his trip, Korovin designed the Far North pavilion at the 1896 All Russia Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod. He painted ten big canvasses for the pavilion as well, depicting various aspects of life in the northern and Arctic regions. 

In 1900 Korovin designed the Central Asia section of the Russian Empire pavilion at the Paris World Fair and was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government.

In the beginning of the 20th century, Korovin focused his attention on the theater. In 1905 Korovin became an Academician of Painting and in 1909–1913 a professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

During World War I Korovin worked as a camouflage consultant at the headquarters of one of the Russian armies. In 1923 he moved to Paris to cure his heart condition and help his handicapped son. There was supposed to be a large exhibition of Korovin's works, but the works were stolen and Korovin was left penniless. For years, he produced the numerous Russian Winters and Paris Boulevards just to make ends meet.

In the last years of his life he produced stage designs for many of the major theatres of Europe, America, Asia and Australia, the most famous of which is his scenery for the Turin Opera House's production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel.


Korovin died in Paris on 11 September 1939. More

Princess Maria Tenisheva had a great artistic taste, she could feel art. Tenisheva collected watercolors and was friends with famous artists: Vasnetsov, Vrubel, Roerich, Malyutin, Benois, sculptor Paolo Troubetzkoy, and many other artists. She organized artists studio to prepare young people for higher arts education in St. Petersburg (1894–1904), where Ilya Repin was teaching.

Maria Tenisheva also became one of the founders of the magazine Mir Iskusstva (World of Arts)

Mir Iskusstva (World of Arts)

When traveling with her husband to Europe, she bought the Western European paintings, porcelain, marble sculptures, jewelry, historical values of China, Japan and Iran. 

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) 

Princess Maria Tenisheva in a chair made of rattan

And when she with her husband went travelling through the old Russian towns: Rostov, Rybinsk, Kostroma, Volga region villages and monasteries, the handmade beauty by unknown masters appeared before her and the new collection of utensils, clothing, furniture, jewelry, glassware set in.

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) see at bottom

Alexander Petrovich Sokolov (1829 - 1913)

Portrait of the educator, collector and artist Princess Maria Tenisheva, c. 1898

Oil on canvas

State Russian Museum

Alexander Petrovich Sokolov (1829 - 1913) was a Russian portrait painter in the Academic style. His brothers, Pyotr and Pavel were also well-known artists. His father was the famous portrait painter, Pyotr Sokolov. He left the gymnasium in 1847, before completing his studies, to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. After two years there, he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Upon receiving the title of "Artist", he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and devote himself mostly to watercolor portraiture. In 1859, a painting of his brother, Pyotr, was among those that won him the title of "Academician".

In 1881, he became a member of the Peredvizhniki and exhibited with them frequently. He became especially well-known for portraits of women, doing several of Maria Feodorovna (above) and other members of the Imperial Family. 


from 1892 to 1907, he served as curator of the Russian Academy of Arts Museum; housed at the Imperial Academy. He became a full member of the Academy in 1896. More

Guests at Talashkino. From left to right sitting fifth Duchess Tenisheva Photo 1899

In 1893, Maria Tenisheva persuaded her friend, Princess Catherine Svyatopolk-Chetverinskaya to sell her ancestry estate Talashkino, and there she quickly created a welcoming, creative atmosphere that gathered many famous artists, musicians and scientists. Talashkino became the Princess' lifework.

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) 

Portrait M.K.Tenishevoy 1896

Thin cardboard, watercolor

35,5 x 27,9 

State Russian Museum

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) see at bottom

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) 

Princess MK Tenisheva at work in 1897

Oil on canvas

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930) see at bottom

MA Alexander Petrovich Sokolov 

Princess MK Tenisheva in the image of Valkyrie 1899

Museums of Russia 

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (March 17, 1856 – April 14, 1910) is usually regarded amongst the Russian painters of the Symbolist movement and of Art Nouveau. In reality, he deliberately stood aloof from contemporary art trends, so that the origin of his unusual manner should be sought in Late Byzantine and Early Renaissance painting.

Vrubel was born in Omsk, Russia. He served in the Imperial Russian Army, then headed the Astrakhan Cossacks. Vrubel followed his father's steps and made a military career, taking part in the Caucasian and Crimean Wars before becoming a military lawyer. 

Though he graduated from the Faculty of Law at St Petersburg University in 1880, his father had recognized his talent for art and provided, through numerous tutors, what proved to be a sporadic education in the subject. The next year he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts. He would later develop a penchant for fragmentary composition and an "unfinished touch".

In 1884, he went to Venice to study medieval Christian art. It was here that "his palette acquired new strong saturated tones resembling the iridescent play of precious stones".

While in Kiev, Vrubel developed a keen interest in Oriental arts, and particularly Persian carpets, and even attempted to imitate their texture in his paintings.

In 1890, Vrubel relocated to Moscow where he excelled not only in painting but also in applied arts, such as ceramics, majolics, and stained glass. He also produced architectural masks, stage sets, and costumes.

During 1896, he met the famous opera singer Nadezhda Zabela. Half a year later they married. Vrubel designed stage sets and costumes for his wife. Using Russian fairy tales, he executed some of his most acclaimed pieces.

In 1905 he created the mosaics of the hotel "Metropol" in Moscow, of which the centre piece of the facade overlooking Teatralnaya square is occupied by the mosaic panel Princess of Dream.. 


At the end he had a severe nervous breakdown and was hospitalized in a mental clinic. In 1906, overpowered by mental disease and approaching blindness, he ceased painting. Vrubel died on April 14, 1910. More

In 1919, after the Revolution, Princess Maria Tenisheva with her friend, Princess Catherine Svyatopolk-Chetverinskaya and her assistants left Russia for France. During her exile in Paris, she wrote a book of memories called "Impressions of my life. Memories", that covered the period from the late 1860s to the New Year's Eve of 1917. The book was published only after her death - Princess Maria Tenisheva died on April 14, 1928. In the obituary to honour Maria Tenisheva Ivan Bilibin wrote: "Her whole life was dedicated to the native Russian art, and she has done infinitely much for it".

Photo Tenisheva Mary Klavdievny

With an inscription by MK Sergei Vasilievich Malyutin Tenisheva on the mat 1900

Princess Maria Tenisheva

Laure Albin Guillot, (1879-1962) 

Untitled, (Presumed Portrait of Princess Maria KLAVDIEVNA Tenisheva) 

Black and white silver test on matte paper, 

pasted on cardboard 

32.9 × 23.8 cm

Laure Albin Guillot (February 14, 1879 – February 22, 1962) was remarkable for the diversity of her production. Wife of a doctor, in the 1920s she invented the term 'micrography' to describe her works which originated from photographs taken through a microscope. In 1922 she received the gold medal from the French Revue of Photography competition. In 1925 she organized her first personal exhibition at the Paris Autumn Salon, and became a well-known photographer, publishing her work in art magazines. During the 1930s, she developed a quasi-pictorial style, and did more and more portraits and nudes while at the same time working to make a lucrative living in advertising, fashion and as a neighborhood photographer. She became a close friend of various artists, musicians and writers and had a number of illustrations printed as special supplements. As head archivist in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts' photographic archives, she was active in working to get photography officially recognized. Laure Albin-Guillot died in 1963, leaving behind her a wealth of 50,000 photographs. More

Princess Maria Tenisheva, and the artist Repin, sketching in Talashkino. 1890

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (5 August 1844 – 29 September 1930) was the most renowned Russian artist of the 19th century. He played a major role in bringing Russian art into the mainstream of European culture. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873), Religious Procession in Kursk Province (1883) and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880–91).

Repin was born in Chuguyev, in the Kharkov Governorate (now Ukraine) of the Russian Empire into a military family. He entered military school in 1854 and in 1856 studied under Ivan Bunakov, a local icon painter. He began to paint around 1860. In 1874–1876 he showed at the Salon in Paris and at the exhibitions of the Itinerants' Society in Saint Petersburg. He was awarded the title of academician in 1876.

In 1901 he was awarded the Legion of Honour. In 1911 he traveled to the World Exhibition in Italy, where his painting 17 October 1905 and his portraits were displayed in their own separate room. In 1916 Repin worked on his book of reminiscences, Far and Near. He welcomed the Russian Revolution of 1917. Celebrations were held in 1924 in Kuokkala to mark Repin's 80th birthday, followed by an exhibition of his works in Moscow. In 1925 a jubilee exhibition of his works was held in the Russian Museum in Leningrad. Repin died in 1930 and was buried at the Penates. More

Acknowledgement: Wikipedia, 


Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others

15 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, of the 18th & 19th C., with Footnotes. #7

József Rippl-Rónai (1861–1927) 

Woman Dressed in Polka Dot Dress, c. 1889

Oil on canvas

Height: 187 cm (73.6 in). Width: 75 cm (29.5 in).

Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary

József Rippl-Rónai (23 May 1861 – 25 November 1927) was a Hungarian painter. He first introduced modern artistic movements in the Hungarian art. He was born in Kaposvár. After his studies at the High School there, he went to study in Budapest, where he obtained a degree in pharmacology. In 1884 he travelled to Munich to study painting at the Academy. Two years later he obtained a grant which enabled him to move to Paris and study with Munkácsy, the most important Hungarian realist painter. In 1888 he met the members of Les Nabis and under their influence he painted his first important work, The Inn at Pont-Aven, a deeply felt work notable for its dark atmosphere. His first big success was his painting My Grandmother (1894). He also painted in a portrait of Hungarian pianist and composer Zdenka Ticharich (1921).

József Rippl-Rónai, (1861–1927) 

Parisian Woman, c. 1891

Oil on canvas

Height: 46 cm (18.1 in). Width: 38 cm (15 in).

Private collection

Later he returned to Hungary, where critical reception was at first lukewarm, but he eventually had a very successful exhibition entitled "Rippl-Rónai Impressions 1890-1900". He believed that for an artist not only is his body of work significant, but also his general modus vivendi, even including the clothes he wore. He thus became interested in design, which led to commissions such as the dining room and the entire furnishings of the Andrássy palace, and a stained-glass window in the Ernst Museum, (both in Budapest). Between 1911 and 1913 his exhibitions in Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna were highly successful. His last major work, a portrait of his friend Zorka, was painted in 1919, and in 1927 he died at his home, the Villa Róma in Kaposvár. More

George Lawrence Bulleid, A.R.W.S. (1858-1933)

The vicar's daughter

Pencil and watercolour

9 x 8.1/4 in. (22.8 x 21 cm.)

Private Collection

George Lawrence Bulleid, (1858 - 1933) is best known as a painter of highly finished oil paintings and watercolours of subjects from classical antiquity, in the manner of Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Albert Moore. He also painted mythological subjects, floral still lives and portraits. Bulleid worked mainly in watercolour, and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, the Royal Watercolour Society, of which he was elected an associate member in 1889, and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours. As Christopher Wood has written of Bulleid, ‘Although his range of subjects is narrow, consisting almost entirely of female figures in classical settings, the intense clarity of his vision, combined with an astonishing level of technical accomplishment, mark him out as much more than just another Alma-Tadema follower. More

BERNARD UHLE, (german/american 1847-1930)

Portrait of Harriet Heverton, c. 1884

Oil on canvas

50" x 35 ¼"

Private Collection

Uhle, Albrecht Bernhard (1847-1930) – Born in Chemnitz, Germany, Bernhard Uhle came to the Unite States in 1851. At the age of fifteen he entered the Pennsylvania Academy. Uhle worked as a photographer from 1867 to 1875. In 1875 he returned to Germany to study with the history painter Franz Xaver Barth and the genre artist Alexander Wagner. In 1877 Uhle returned to Philadelphia and set up a studio as a portrait painter and gained the reputation of being one of the city’s outstanding portraitists. Also an etcher, he joined the Philadelphia Society of Etchers in 1880. He was on the faculty at the Pennsylvania Academy from 1886 to 1890 and took over the portrait class once run by Thomas Eakins. Uhle was a member of the Sketch Club from 1889 to 1897. More

Alexander Nikolayevich Samokhvalov (RUSSIAN 1894-1971)

Girl in an Interior, 1940

Oil on canvas

96.5 x 67.5 cm (38 x 26 1/2 in.)

Private Collection

Alexander Samokhvalov is regarded as one of the founders and brightest representatives of the Leningrad school of painting. The present lot, Girl in an Interior reflects the pre-war life of the Leningrad intelligentsia, and is a continuation of the series of Samokhvalov’s works dedicated to young Russian women,– builders of new life. This composition was created in 1940 – three-year after the artist’s famous Girl in a Football Shirt (below) was awarded the gold medal at the International Art Fair in Paris, (which also included Pablo Picasso’s Guernica). The tenderness, refinement, and intimacy of this portrait is a rare work by a master of Soviet Socialist Realism. More

Alexander Nikolayevich Samokhvalov ( 21 August 1894 - 20 August 1971) was a Soviet Russian painter, watercolorist, graphic artist, illustrator, art teacher and Honored Arts Worker of the RSFSR, who lived and worked in Leningrad. He was a member of the Leningrad branch of Union of Artists of Russian Federation, and was regarded as one of the founders and brightest representatives of the Leningrad school of painting, most famous for his genre and portrait painting. More

Alexander Nikolayevich Samokhvalov (RUSSIAN 1894-1971)

Girl in a Football Shirt, 1932

Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

"Girl in a T Shirtt" (1932) was the first of a series of paintings dedicated to the young Soviet women. Alexander Samohvalov sought to capture the typical features of his contemporaries - energetic, self-motivated, full of optimism and ready for action, working alongside men - in other words, "stop a galloping horse ...".

Alexander Nikolayevich Samokhvalov was born on 21 August 1894 in the town of Bezhetsk, located in the Tver Governorate of the Russian Empire. In 1914, Samokhvalov enrolled in the Higher Art School of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg

He graduated from Petrograd VKHUTEIN in 1923. Samokhvalov had participated in art exhibitions since 1914, and in 1917 he took part in the exhibition of the Mir iskusstva. He painted portraits, genre and historical paintings, as well as monumental and easel painting, black-and-white art, sculpture, decorative and applied art, and illustrations for fiction and poetry. He produced book graphics from the middle of the 1920s, and began working with scenography in the 1930s at the Bolshoi Drama Theater and Russian State Pushkin Academy Drama Theater in Leningrad and Novosibirsk.

Alexander Nikolayevich Samokhvalov, (RUSSIAN 1894-1971)

Portrait M.G.Filippovoy, c. 1942

Make-up artist of the Leningrad Theater of Drama

Portrait created during the evacuation (1941-1945) in Novosibirsk.

Oil on canvas

110 x 80

Yaroslavl Art Museum 

He was very successful in images of heroes of labour and sport. He was the creator of a significant work of the Soviet Epoch of the 1930s with his painting "Girl in T-short" (1932) (above). In 1937, he was awarded the gold medal at the International Art Fair in Paris, France. At the same time, Samokhvalov took two Grand-Prix awards.

Samokhvalov created many genre and historical paintings by commission. From 1948 to 1951, he taught in the monumental painting department at the Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry, and he authored a memoir titled «My Way of Creation» (1977). In 1967, Samokhvalov was awarded the Order of Lenin for outstanding contribution to development of Soviet art. More  More

However, three years earlier, Ivan Koelikov had painted Sports Girl, Below.

Kulikov Ivan Semenovich, (1875-1945)

Sports Girl (Fizkoeltoernitsa), c. 1929

In 1929 Kulikov revealed a number of works. Among them was, "Sportwoman". In "Sportwoman" the artist has depicted the girl in a minute of rest. She is dressed in a white shirt with black stripes, emphasizing the elegant lines of the figure. In her hands volleyball. Full of optimism and faith in the future looking cheerful and sociable. For "Sportwoman" Kulikov chose weaver Pan Ivanov. She was a Komsomol factory leader, and later became secretary of the city committee of the Komsomol. In the future, "Sportwoman" was reproduced many times, and in 1939 was exhibited at the exhibition of Soviet art in Philadelphia. More

Ivan Semyonovich Kulikov (13 April 1875, Murom - 15 December 1941, Murom) was a Russian painter, primarily of portraits and genre scenes. He was born to a peasant family that had recently moved to Murom from a rural village. His father was a roofer and house painter who headed a small cooperative that built and repaired numerous structures there.

In 1893, a local teacher became impressed with his drawing skills an introduced him to Alexander Morozov, who spent the summers painting in Murom. Morozov was impressed as well and advised his parents to enroll him in the drawing school at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.

When he arrived in Saint Petersburg, he took a position as an assistant in Morozov's studio. The following year, he enrolled at the drawing school. In 1896, he began auditing classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Kulikov Ivan Semenovich, (1875-1945)

The Spinners, c. 1903

He graduated from the Academy in 1902 with a gold medal, the title of "Free Artist" and a stipend to study abroad. From 1903 to 1905, he used that stipend to visit Italy and France. When he returned, he won awards at several exhibitions, was offered employment as Director of the Kharkov art school in 1912 and was named an "Academician" in 1915.

In 1919, he helped to establish the "Murom History and Art Museum" and headed the art department for many years. In that capacity, he worked vigorously to collect, not only art objects, but documents, books and various historical relics from buildings that were abandoned or due to be demolished; as well as items that were looted during the war. 

In 1932, he became a member of the Gorky branch of the USSR Union of Artists. In his later years, he created numerous canvases and drawings on military subjects. In 1947, following his wishes, his family opened a museum at his home. It was in operation until 2007, when the local authorities closed it and transferred the collection to the History and Art Museum. More

André Derain, (French, 1880-1954)

Portrait de Iya, Lady Abdy, circa 1934-1939

Oil on canvas 

116 x 89cm (45 11/16 x 35 1/16in).

Private Collection

Iya, Lady Abdy (d. 1993), was the first wife of the English ship-owner Sir Robert Abdy (1896-1976). Born Iya Grigorievna de Gay in St Petersburg, she escaped with her family to Finland during the Russian Revolution, before moving to Paris. A striking blonde over six feet tall (Cecil Beaton said she 'invented size') she was one of the bright young things of Parisian society of the '20s and '30s. A friend of Coco Chanel and Jean Cocteau, she was a regular in the salon of the Comtesse de Noailles, and was photographed by Man Ray and Cecil Beaton, and for Vogue by George Hoyningen Huene.

In 1935 she financed a production of Les Cenci by the theatre visionary Antonin Artaud, in return for taking the part of Beatrice Cenci. The play was based partly on Shelley's 1819 cabinet piece on the gruesome medieval story of incest and patricide, and partly on Stendhal's work of 1837 based on his own archival research. Both sources contributed to the shocking subject matter of the play, which was designed to introduce Artaud's brutal theories of the Theatre of Cruelty. Playing from 7 May 1935 over only fifteen performances to a bewildered and uncomprehending public, the only praise was for Iya Abdy's beauty and the sets and costumes designed by Balthus. At about the same time Balthus painted Lady Abdy's portrait in the role of Beatrice (formerly in Lady Abdy's own collection) in which she wears a deep red gown very similar to the one she wears in the present portrait, and which may indeed be the costume Balthus designed for the role. More

André Derain (10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. In 1895 Derain began to study on his own. In 1898, while studying to be an engineer at the Académie Camillo, he attended painting classes under Eugène Carrière, and there met Matisse.  Matisse persuaded Derain's parents to allow him to abandon his engineering career and devote himself solely to painting; subsequently Derain attended the Académie Julian.

Derain and Matisse worked together through the summer of 1905 in the Mediterranean village of Collioure and later that year displayed their highly innovative paintings at the Salon d'Automne. The vivid, unnatural colors led the critic Louis Vauxcelles to derisively dub their works as les Fauves, or "the wild beasts", marking the start of the Fauvist movement.

In 1907 art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler purchased Derain's entire studio, granting Derain financial stability. He experimented with stone sculpture and moved to Montmartre to be near his friend Pablo Picasso and other noted artists. At Montmartre, Derain began to shift from the brilliant Fauvist palette to more muted tones, showing the influence of Cubism and Paul Cézanne. 

At about this time Derain's work began overtly reflecting his study of the Old Masters. The role of color was reduced and forms became austere; the years 1911–1914 are sometimes referred to as his gothic period. In 1914 he was mobilized for military service in World War I. After the war, Derain won new acclaim as a leader of the renewed classicism then ascendant. With the wildness of his Fauve years far behind, he was admired as an upholder of tradition. 

The 1920s marked the height of his success, as he was awarded the Carnegie Prize in 1928 for his "Still-life with Dead Game" and began to exhibit extensively abroad—in London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, New York City and Cincinnati, Ohio.

During the German occupation of France in World War II, Derain lived primarily in Paris and was much courted by the Germans because he represented the prestige of French culture. Derain accepted an invitation to make an official visit to Germany in 1941, and traveled with other French artists to Berlin to attend a Nazi exhibition of an officially endorsed artist, Arno Breker. Derain's presence in Germany was used effectively by Nazi propaganda, and after the Liberation he was branded a collaborator and ostracized by many former supporters. More

Jamil Naqsh (b. 1938, Kairana, India)

Lady Playing Flute

Oil on canvas

102 x 76 cm.

Private Collection

Jamil Naqsh (b. 1938, Kairana, India) is a Pakistani painter currently lives a reclusive life in London. He briefly studied at National College of Arts but left before obtaining a degree. His work is very idealized and sensual.

Jamil Naqsh was born in Kairana, India in 1938, and later moved to Karachi, Pakistan. Naqsh trained as a miniaturist under former NCA professor Ustaad Haji Sharif. He left the National College of Arts without completing his degree as he felt it was the experience not the qualification that was important.

Jamil Naqsh mostly paints women and pigeons. He paints, women, often integrating the elements of horses, pigeons or children.

Jamil Naqsh has also painted Islamic calligraphy in his modern style with unique and bold brush strokes. His particular style of calligraphy is designed keeping in mind the basic elements of art, particularly emphasising on 'line'. More

Jamil Naqsh, (b. 1938, Kairana, India)

Lady Playing Flute

Oil on canvas

102 x 76 cm

Private Collection

True to painterly tradition, Najmi Sura’s work also features women in the company of various musical instruments, which indicate Sura’s preference for women in proactive roles rather as objectified or commodified females waiting for favours. Unlike past depictions of this theme. Najmi Sura’s women come across as confident ladies, despite the ambivalence of their place in court or society, either in an imagined yesteryear or in our contemporary age. More

NIKOLAY STEPANOVICH TROSHIN (RUSSIAN 1897-1990)

Portrait of Olga Deineko

Gouache on paper

88 x 32 cm (35 x 12 1/2 in.)

Private Collection

Olga Deineko  (1897 - 1970) was born in Ukraine and studied at VKhUTEMAS under Ilya Mashkov.  She worked as a graphic artist and designer, and was a member of Society of Revolutionary Poster Designers.  The wife of Nikolai Troshin, she was also well known as children's book illustrator in the late 1920s and early 1930s. More

NIKOLAY STEPANOVICH TROSHIN (RUSSIAN 1897-1990) was an important painter, theater director, poster designer, and chief artist and designer for influential avant-garde journals such as USSR Under Construction. Having studied at Penza Art Institute under Ivan Goryushkin-Sorokopudov and N. Petrov from 1913-1918, Troshin later moved to Moscow where he studied with Ilya Mashkov from 1918-1920. He actively exhibited since 1918, and personal exhibitions of Troshin`s works were held in Moscow and other cities in Russia through the time of his passing. Troshin`s paintings can be found in the permanent collections of the Tretyakov Museum, State Russian Museum, and many other museums in Russia. More

JULIEN DUPRE (FRENCH 1851-1910)

Le lait frais du matin

Oil on canvas

47 x 56 cm (18 1/2 x 22 in.)

Private Collection

Julien Dupré (March 18, 1851 – April 16, 1910) was a French painter. He was born in Paris on March 18, 1851 to Jean Dupré (a jeweler) and Pauline Bouillié and began his adult life working in a lace shop in anticipation of entering his family's jewelry business. The war of 1870 and the siege of Paris forced the closure of the shop and Julien began taking evening courses at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and it was through these classes that he gained admission to the École des Beaux-Arts.

In the mid-1870s he traveled to Picardy and became a student of the rural genre painter Désiré François Laugée (1823–1896), whose daughter Marie Eléonore Françoise he would marry in 1876; the year he exhibited his first painting at the Paris Salon.

Throughout his career Dupré championed the life of the peasant and continued painting scenes in the areas of Normandy and Brittany until his death on April 16, 1910. More

VERA VLADIMIROVNA KHLEBNIKOVA (RUSSIAN 1891-1941)

Sun Bathing, c. 1920s

oil on board

40 x 51 cm (15 3/4 x 20 in.)

Private Collection

Vera Vladimirovna Khlebnikova was born on March 20, 1891 in the Astrakhan Province. She was a sister of the famous poet Velimir Khlebnikov.

While living in Paris, she took lessons from Kees van Dongen. In autumn 1913 Vera Khlebnikova moved from Paris to Florence, Italy.

Vera returned to Russia, through England, in August, 1916. Most of the works created by her in Italy were left there, in the house of her hostess. She brought to her parents’ house in Astrakhan only a dozen of paintings that she had managed to fit into her suitcase.

In 1924 she married the artist Petr Miturich. She was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Her works are kept in the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the Astrakhan Art Gallery (Astrakhan), and the Velimir Khlebnikov House Museum (Astrakhan). More

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others

Acknowledgement: Bonhams, 

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others